Impression Obsession
Exploring science phenomena in a play-centered preschool classroom
By Jane Tingle Broderick, Kathryn Boniol, Nathan Martin, Kate Robshaw, and Virginia Holley
E
arly experiences with planning
and guiding children’s learning
are exciting for preservice teachers in undergraduate teacher training
programs. In this article, observations
of a preschool play session guide four
preservice teachers to design a series
of play-centered lessons addressing
serious science concepts (Hall 2010).
While the concepts guided in these
lessons are not new, identifying science
thinking in children’s play is valuable
for preservice and inservice teachers as
they plan learning opportunities that
extend children’s knowledge. This can
be done by providing materials over
long periods of time and using an engage, explore, reflect process, checking
for understanding and relying on observations to guide long-term inquiry
(Chalufour 2010). The ways these
preservice teachers used observations
of play and research questions to shift
children’s focus on the tracks of dinosaurs in play dough to a more general
look at the physical science phenomena of pressure and force (Duckworth
2006) are discussed here in the voice
of the preservice teachers. The assignment guiding this process asked preservice teachers to observe play, record
their observations, then meet together
to discuss and write their interpretations of the children’s thinking. They
were to use their interpretations to develop questions to plan for and guide
a next play session. The complete assignment required the implementation
of three sessions with children.
OBSERVATIONS LEAD TO
SCIENCE EXPERIENCE
On a crisp, clear day in a children’s
center in east Tennessee, four fouryear-old children were making im-
FIGURE 1
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE AUTHORS
Setup of first science experience.
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021
pressions of familiar objects in play
dough. Children chose the learning
centers where we first observed their
play. It was in the kitchen center where
we noticed some children were making
stepping motions with plastic dinosaurs in play dough and observing the
resulting footprints. This subtle activity caught the observers’ attention. It
led to planning a session that included
various objects with materials in which
these objects can make impressions.
Our initial focus included a consideration of weight but quickly shifted
based on our observations of children’s
thinking that went in other directions,
such as the impact of pressure and
time on impressions.
DESIGNING A SCIENCE
LESSON
When planning for play-based learning experiences, a goal is to set up the
materials in a way that invites children
to spontaneously enter and explore.
Children naturally learn through play
experiences that challenge their intellect (Duckworth 2006). Formulating
research questions based on the play
we’d observed was our strategy for
designing a lesson plan that embeds
inquiry into a welcoming setting that
feels like play to the children. Three
questions guided our planning process:
•
How does the medium affect the
impression?
•
What does size say about weight?
•
What affects impressions besides
size?
The lesson plan was to provide toy dinosaurs, along with a variety of other
available items, to help the children
learn about the effect of size on the impression. Teachers can search through
their school and homes to discover
items for testing the effect of object
size on impressions like the simple
hardware (sockets, rocks, and marbles) we located for their similarity of
size. It was also important to include
toy dinosaurs in this plan, as a way to
intentionally link the new experience
to children’s previous play. The idea
was to challenge children’s ideas that
an object of a similar size might have a
different impact when creating an impression.
Clay, play dough, and sand were
provided as surfaces for making impressions. They were presented to
children in flat bases of plastic containers or flattened on a table surface. The
toy dinosaurs, sockets, rocks and a big
marble were arranged in categories (see
Figure 1). Children were invited to interact with the materials to observe the
different types of impressions made
by each of the objects, noticing and
comparing impressions in sand, play
dough, and clay. Additionally, safety
precautions were in place in that materials were developmentally appropriate, were chosen with consideration of
the guidelines for safe materials at the
preschool, and were identified as nonhazardous (NAEYC 2009); according to the NSTA guidelines for safety,
children were supervised throughout.
Children were delighted with this
play invitation. They engaged deeply
for a long period of time observing
differences in the impacts of objects
in play dough. There were several experiments we observed. Many children were comparing the impressions
of two different objects in the play
dough. “Ethan puts a different dinosaur into the play dough and contemplates the differences between the two
impressions that he made with the dinosaurs in the playdough.” Other chil-
dren were holding objects for different
lengths of time to notice the effect of
time and pressure on the imprint.
“Wait five minutes. You need to wait
for it to make a square.” This child and
others were curious about the relationship of the shape of an object and the
shape of its impression. Some children
noticed the relationship of the physical
nature of objects to things with which
they are familiar, like a socket with a
hole looking like a telescope (see Figure
2). Our observation records state that
“Billy was observing the difference
of pressing a rock into the clay with
a hard versus a soft force.” Through
testing of clay, play dough, and sand,
children noticed that sand was not a
good material for creating substantial
impressions.
EXTENDING THE LESSON
Time with materials allows children to
find their own approach to experimentation. Very young children and preschoolers may engage with materials
for lengths of time without much verbal conversation because their actions
are their focus. This sort of silence
and attention is a good sign of a deep
motivation that guided us to plan for
a next-day lesson that included similar
materials with some slight tweaking in
the presentation as a strategy to capture children’s interests while inviting
continued experimentation. A goal
F IGURE 2
Exploring force and shapes.
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FIG U RE 3
Interpretation of previous play session.
Social Distancing
Experiences with impressions can be adapted to the new virtual
learning opportunities that early childhood teachers are designing
during this time of COVID-19. A few steps can assist children and
families at home to be successful. Each can be provided as individual
activities on different days.
1. Provide families with this recipe for making playdough or this
video where a mother and her young children show how to make
playdough (see Internet Resources).
a. Teachers can gather a variety of items for making impressions
from around their home. Consider items that might be found in
the homes of children. Then, using a phone, videotape yourself
rolling out playdough into slabs and experimenting with making
impressions in the playdough. Talk aloud as you experiment to
help children learn about the sorts of things you are noticing, for
example, “I see the texture of the pinecone,” or “I see the shape of
this bottle cap.”
2. Send the video to families with a written invitation to
a. View the video.
b. Hunt for items in their homes that they can use to make
impressions in playdough.
c. Experiment with the objects making impressions.
d. Tell their family members the details they are noticing.
e. Ask a family member to document what children do and say with
video or photos while also writing what the children observe and
discover.
3. Ask children and families to share their discoveries in a virtual class
meeting where family photos can be shared as children describe
their processes, or family videos can be shared to reveal discoveries.
Allow for more than one class meeting for sharing if there is interest
to extend the explorations. Teachers can use questions from the
article as prompts for the virtual discussions.
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is for children to encounter materials
from previous play so they can incorporate ideas and thinking that may
make play feel seamless from one day
to the next.
Reviewing our observation records
led to interpretations (see Figure 3)
and possible research questions we
could form around the interactions
with materials we observed and assisted us in determining the types of
materials to include and to add to extend children’s thinking. We realized
children were able to understand the
concept that objects can create different markings in the play dough, that
the depth of an impression relates to
the force of their applied pressure, that
there is a relationship of the shape of
the object to the shape of the impression, and a relationship between the
time one applies pressure to an object
and the impression it makes. We also
shifted our questioning and planning
thinking to accommodate these experiences.
The materials for our extended science experience included play dough,
play dough tools, blocks, bottle caps,
big caps, pennies, tiny puzzle pieces,
leaves, shells, and rocks of different
sizes. The objects were lined along the
edge of the table, carefully organized
into the categories of natural and humanmade. The beauty and aesthetics
of the setup was intentionally designed
to excite the children and gain their attention (see Figure 4). The following
research questions guided our planning and were used with children as
invitations to explore.
•
What kinds of shapes can you
make with these objects?
•
Look and see how deep you can
make your impressions.
•
What is the relationship between
length of time of pressure and the
imprint of the object?
Children immediately began to experiment with making impressions in the
FI G URE 4
Setup of second science experience.
several slabs of play dough that were
rolled flat and ready for play. They began to think about the possibilities for
the many different kinds of impressions and shapes these objects might
make. Repetitive imprints using the
same object led to the development of
patterns. Nicole demonstrates understanding of the correlation between
the impressions of objects of the same
shape but of different sizes when making an impression with a bottle cap.
She says, “It’s a circle.” She went on to
make an impression with a larger cap
when prompted to look for other objects that can make a circle impression
(see Figure 5).
We were intrigued by children’s
sensitivity to the details of their impressions, like the veins of a leaf or
the texture and image formed from a
block of wood. An example from our
observation records state that, “Molly
makes a pressing with a leaf and feels
the impression it left behind. Molly
then does the same with a penny.
Molly uses more force to push a penny
F IGURE 6
Molly’s impression made with her sleeve and Nicole
manipulating the size of the play dough.
F I G URE 5
Circles of different sizes.
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into the play dough.” Her remarks also
indicate that she was able to recognize
that the amount of pressure placed on
an object directly impacts the depth of
the impression. “This circle is so deep!
It’s a face. It’s a mommy.”
The simple research questions we
planned as invitations to guide this
experience prompted further thinking and learning (Duckworth 2006)
but did not prevent the children from
following their own new interests, like
texture, as they explored phenomena
of the depth, pressure, and shape of
impressions.
A THIRD EXTENSION
Through examining the interests of
the children (Chalufour 2010; Hall
2010) in the previous play session, we
decided to once again include the same
wide array of tools, with the categories
of manmade and natural materials and
flattened play dough. The children’s
continued focus was evidence that
they had not exhausted their ideas for
experimentation with these materials.
Our intention was for the children to
continue exploring the phenomena of
shape and force as they created impressions and textures. We had also saved
some of the impressions from the previous session to include with the setup
as inspirational guides. We relied on
the research questions from the previous day to guide this lesson extension
and included a new research question
based on the potential for children to
create and recognize patterns as they
experiment with the materials: Could
some of these objects be used to make
patterns?
The variety of objects continued to
spark interest in exploring the intended phenomena, but so did some unexpected tools, like children’s clothing. Molly noticed that the sleeve of
her shirt left an imprint and excitedly
repeated the process by pressing her
sleeve into the play dough. She was
learning that impressions can be
made unintentionally and then recreated. Nicole discovered how the
force used to manipulate a rolling tool
can affect the dimensions of the play
dough, making a smaller slab into a
F IG URE 7
Nicole’s shell impression.
larger one. “It’s rolling. It gets bigger” (see Figure 6).
There were many ways we observed children demonstrating their
understanding of the basic concept of
an impression, which was one underlying factor guiding each play session.
Children were learning that patterns
in the impression matched the pattern
of the object applying the pressure. For
example, we observed Nicole turning
over a shell, rubbing her finger along
the ridges of its underside and then rubbing them over the ridges in the shell’s
imprint in the play dough (see Figure
7). Ethan said, “It makes dough with
spots,” when he noticed the pattern in
the play dough matched the pattern in
the rolling pin Nicole was using.
Children were experimenting with
the idea that patterns are repeatable,
like the creation of a row of impressions of small bricks, circular sockets,
or pennies. Ethan found that pressure
can force a hole through a slab of play
dough, and Molly liked the quality of
creating a textured impression of one
object (brick) on top of the impression of another object (leaf). Children
were designing their own experiments
with a variety of patterns, like the use
of various scraps of wood and blocks
to make rectangular and square shapes
onto the surface of one slab of play
dough (see Figure 8).
At the close of our third day with
children, we learned that we can make
simple changes to the materials and
their arrangements, and form new
perspectives for exploring the materials by reviewing our observations of
children’s play. While it was our last
day for our field experience as preservice students, the mentor teacher recognized the potential for maintaining
the learning center we had designed
and continuing to develop extensions
over time.
CONCLUSION
The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC
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2009) advocates play-based curriculum as the best tool for facilitating
learning with young children. This
type of curriculum can initiate higher
order thinking skills and extend the
potential for learning. Through the
play-based experiences, students were
able to meet many of the Tennessee
Early Learning and Development
Standards (TN–ELDS) in the following domains: sensorimotor, fine motor, geometry, social emotional relationship, and science.
Originally, we began our work with
the intent of exploring size through
experimental play with selected materials. Throughout our lessons, we
held an intentional focus of the effects
of different objects on the impressions
they can make in a malleable material
like play dough. We remained flexible
with our planning in relation to the
thinking we observed that included
the impact of shape and force on impressions. As preservice teachers, we
learned that it is possible to approach
simple activities like manipulation of
play dough as serious endeavors for
developing science curriculum that
can engage children intellectually over
the course of many play sessions. We
learned that an open-ended approach
allows children to explore phenomena
like shape and force in ways that encourage them to discover many other
concepts that include repeatable patterns, creating textures, and the use
of tools to alter the shape and size of a
slab of play dough.
Developing research questions to
guide the play, like, “how does shape,
or time or force affect an impression?”
helped us guide children’s understanding of the processes that were
engaging their minds (Duckworth
2006). As professionals, teachers
can engage children in conversations
where teachers incorporate science
terminology and questioning to help
children solidify the concepts that
they are learning through play (Duckworth 2006). For example, introduc-
ing terms like pattern, deep, and pressure, give meaning to the children’s
actions and provide language they can
continue to use.
Observations were our ongoing
formative assessments for evaluating the effectiveness of our previous lessons and deciding how to add
new thinking and depth into the extended lessons. We paid attention to
children’s actions and words using
running records to capture verbatim
accounts. We revisited these records
after each lesson to interpret and
gain insight into children’s purposes
and what they might be questioning.
For example, the nonverbal process
of pushing the penny into the play
dough with less or more pressure
demonstrated that children were exploring and questioning force. Using
play and children’s interests as the
basis for our planning, we saw the potential for endless possibilities within
and beyond our lessons, and we were
able to maintain children’s engagement. Time is an essential factor in
an approach like ours, where very
subtle shifts in materials can allow
children more time to experiment and
perhaps repeat previous experiments
to deepen their understanding of the
phenomena they encounter with particular materials. ●
F IGURE 8
A variety of experiments with pattern, force, and shape.
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REFERENCES
Childhood Research & Practice 12
(2): Fall. Retrieved from: https://
ecrp.illinois.edu/beyond/seed/hall.
html
NAEYC. 2009. Developmentally
Appropriate Practice in early
Childhood Programs Serving
Children Birth through Age 8: A
Position Statement of the National
Association for the Education of
Young Children. Retrieved from:
https://www.naeyc.org/sites/
default/files/globally-shared/
downloads/PDFs/resources/
position-statements/PSDAP.pdf
Chalufour, I. 2010. Learning to teach
science: Strategies that support
teacher practice. Early Childhood
Research & Practice 12 (2): Fall.
Retrieved from: https://ecrp.illinois.
edu/beyond/seed/chalufour.html
Duckworth, E. 2006. The Having of
Wonderful Ideas: And Other Essays
on Teaching and Learning. New
York: Teachers College Press.
Hall, E. 2010. What professional
development in early childhood
science will meet the requirements
of practicing teachers? Early
NGSS Lead States. 2013. Next
Generation Science Standards:
For states, by states. Washington,
DC: National Academies Press.
www.nextgenscience.org/nextgeneration-science-standards.
INTERNET RESOURCES
Best homemade playdough recipe
https://www.iheartnaptime.net/playdough-recipe/
How to Make Playdough Homemade
DIY with Ryan’s World!
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=u8fS-lZmErw
Jane Tingle Broderick (broderic@mail.etsu.edu) is a professor of early childhood education at East Tennessee State
University in Johnson City, Tennessee. Kathryn Boniol is a graduate student in the Department of Early Childhood Education at East Tennessee State University. Nathan Martin is a preschool teacher in McEwen, Tennessee. Kate Robshaw is
an undergraduate student in the Department of Early Childhood Education at East Tennessee State University. Virginia
Holley is a graduate student in the Department of Early Childhood Education at East Tennessee State University.
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